Flat panel displays have been used ubiquitously as a standard output device for various electronic devices, such as, personal computers, laptop computers, smartphones, smart watches, televisions, handheld video game devices, a public information display, and the like. Recently, flat panel displays have been developed to include input functionalities (e.g., touch screens that are sensitive to either pressure or capacitance changes in response to user touches or interactions), such that the flat panel displays can be used as both an input (pointer) device and an output device. A touch screen can interact with the user and detect one or more of user's finger point contacts and/or drawings on the screen as input signals. However, a touch screen cannot capture graphical information from the two-dimensional surface of an information bearing substrate.
Many electronic devices, such as smartphones and laptop computers, have been developed to include a camera disposed before or behind their flat panel displays pointing to a direction same or opposite to the light emission direction of the displays. Although such a camera can be used to capture images (still or moving pictures) as an input, the camera requires focus and the captured images are often distorted or of low quality due to, for example, a shaky hand.
Accordingly, there is a need to develop a new image sensor panel that can be easily integrated with a display panel (flat or curved) and can easily capture graphical information from the two-dimensional surface of an information bearing substrate without having to focus. There is also a need to develop a new method for capturing graphical, textual, or other information from the information bearing substrate using the combination of an image sensor panel and a display panel.